Only a few days back at\u00a0Scuola Mosaicisti\u00a0del Friuli, and we have already started with our next group project: We copy the hell scene from the Florentine Baptistery. It is located in the lower part of the dome, which measures 26 meters on average and is completely covered with mosaic. Its design is attributed to important artists as Giotto and Cimabue. More than 100 years, from 1225 to 1330, people worked on the large scale mosaic with its huge figure of Christ, the angelic hierarchies, scenes from Genesis, the life of the Patriarch Joseph, scenes from the life of Christ, and John the Baptist, represented in four strips.<\/p>\n
Christ is depicted as a judge (the circular image\u00a0counts 8 meters). To his right hand he has the elected, to his left the damned among the dead. They rise up under him from their coffins and are sent by him to hell, that is raigned by a man-eating devil from whose donkey’s ears snakes crawl their way.<\/p>\n
The scene is implemented by us in original size (3.00 x 1.77 meters). Since the photos that are available to us show little detail, we try to remain as close as possible to the original colors, but if necessary we improvise, invent color blends and can even add a little personal interpretation. We work with andamenti similar to Roman style but the space is filled in a different way.\u00a0The Byzantine way of laying is much more chaotic, with its irregular surface and joints and tesserae<\/em> that are often far from perfect. If we place\u00a0ourselves in the working conditions under which the huge mosaic must have been originated in the Middle Ages, this imperfection is logic:\u00a0Standing on a scaffold in an uncomfortable position and with low light conditions, no one can generate a plain surface. And it wouldn’t be appropriate for the dome either as only the vibrant surface reflects the light in a wonderful way.<\/p>\n With two classes totaling 25 people and three teachers this group work is an organizationally and thematically ambitious project. To get the softest possible transitions between the different parts, we go for a tour from time to compare with the work of our neighbors. How were color mixtures made, are there any differences in the way of laying? Each of us will mark its progress in a plan so that we keep track of how the work progresses.<\/p>\n The part of the huge mosaic we copy in school certainly is the liveliest\u00a0of the whole dome. The intensity of the colors, all the gold and the design itself are breathtakingly beautiful. Currently, I am working on one of the horns and am curious what part I get next. By Christmas, the complete work is to be completed!<\/p>\n Photo Baptisery San Giuseppe: Wikipedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A devil, snakes, precious colors, gold: We have arrived in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[408,385],"tags":[1225,1229,1301],"class_list":["post-8760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","category-places","tag-byzantine-empire-en","tag-making-copies-en","tag-formation-scuola-mosaicisti-del-friuli","post-item","post-even"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mused-mosaik.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}